Greg Hughes Home Brew Beer 2019 - recipe query

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Fungus
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Greg Hughes Home Brew Beer 2019 - recipe query

Post by Fungus » Sat Jul 04, 2020 8:37 pm

I’ve just got the updated Greg Hughes book having used the previous version extensively.

The new version has some new recipes and one I’m really interested in: white IPA with rose and hibiscus. I’m looking to do this but the recipe seems to be missing the quantity of rose petals.

Anyone tried the recipe and got any experience of how much rose petal to add? I’m presuming similar amount to the hibiscus but slightly worried I’ll and I’ll with something akin to perfume rather than beer!

Thanks
James

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Re: Greg Hughes Home Brew Beer 2019 - recipe query

Post by f00b4r » Sat Jul 04, 2020 9:16 pm

50g in secondary.

Fungus
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Re: Greg Hughes Home Brew Beer 2019 - recipe query

Post by Fungus » Tue Jul 07, 2020 8:16 pm

Great, thanks

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Re: Greg Hughes Home Brew Beer 2019 - recipe query

Post by adrientop » Tue Mar 07, 2023 8:35 am

Hi There,
I've also brewed that recipe last Saturday and I wanted to know if you boiled the petals before adding them to your fermenter. I'm worried that I might ruin the flavor if I do, but bring on wild yeast if I don't.

Also, did you respect the fermentation temperature of the recipe? It says 35 degrees, it's crazy, even for a belgian strain.

Thanks for your help

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Greg Hughes Home Brew Beer 2019 - recipe query

Post by f00b4r » Tue Mar 07, 2023 1:18 pm

Interesting question as, unlike some other additions like hibiscus, it does not specify dried leaves.

In Brooklyn Brew Shop’s book they use fresh petals, as an alternative to dried rose buds, at flame out, so killing any nasties or wild yeast.

James Morton has this to say in his “Brew” book about using elderflowers in his pale ale recipe:

“If you want an ‘in your face’ elderflower flavour, wait until after your primary fermentation and add an “elderflower ‘tea’ made with dried or fresh elderflower, steeped in boiling water until it hits the level of flavour you like. If you add bare elderflower to cool beer, you’ll infect it with wild yeast. This isn’t a bad thing, necessarily.”

Given that you are post fermentation, it might be safer to either make a rose “tea” or briefly pour some boiling water on the petals to kill any wild yeast.

Let us know how it turns out!

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Re: Greg Hughes Home Brew Beer 2019 - recipe query

Post by MashBag » Wed Mar 08, 2023 9:17 am

Delicate flavours need delicate treatment in my experience.

I would wash them under cold tap and then add them to the fermentor.
Boiling will indeed destroy any wild yeast there may be, along with everthing else.
Adding as 'tea' will work, but I suggest it too will blow off a large percentage of this delicate ingredient in the stream.. to the neighbours and not into your beer.

Have you thought of rosewater? You could add it to taste then?

As this has delicate flavours / aromas I would ferment at the cooler end of the yeast manufacturers recommendation.

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Re: Greg Hughes Home Brew Beer 2019 - recipe query

Post by adrientop » Wed Mar 08, 2023 11:42 pm

Thanks both for your replies. I'm not looking for an "in your face" rose flavour, I think rose can be quite overwhelming. The hibiscus should already give a slight acidic taste to the beer and the wild yeast of the rose would probably add up to this acidity, which would take this beer toward the sour range.

So I'm gonna go with the tea option, brewing the rose with a bit of water at 80C. That should keep enough flavor and kill most of the wild yeast. Another option would be to roast them a few min at 100C in the oven, but I think this particular ingredient is too delicate for that and it would probably release some unwanted oil and change the flavour too.

The recipe says to make the addition at 3 days which would be today, but the gravity is around 1.027 so still a bit early for me. I will wait day 5, and leave it for 5 days before kegging.

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Re: Greg Hughes Home Brew Beer 2019 - recipe query

Post by f00b4r » Thu Mar 09, 2023 8:51 am

Another option might be a vodka tincture but it might be a little late to play around with that.
I’ve tried hibiscus in a sour beer before, it adds some pretty interesting notes.
Good luck with the beer.

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Re: Greg Hughes Home Brew Beer 2019 - recipe query

Post by adrientop » Sun Apr 02, 2023 10:57 pm

Here is an update and some of my notes for the next people who want to try to brew that beer.

I placed the rose petal in a Pyrex jug and poured 500ml of freshly boiled water (could have used less water). I poured that directly in the fermentor and stirred with a fork to break off the clusters. It briefly jacked up my iSpindel temperature of 1 degree, going from 21.5 to 22.6. Happily bubbling with the new input of oxygen.
It actually bubbled for a very weird long time compared to usual, that was a bit scary, I thought it might have become contaminated, but the temperature and bubbling starting dropping around the 9th or 10th day of fermentation. I had to keg it just after that because I had a time constraint, I brewed that beer for the art exhibition of my partner, it would have been best to give that beer 2 weeks of fermentation.

Rose petals are very messy, next time I will put them in a large hop sock because some got into the keg and are probably stuck in the tube, making the pour extremely slow and laborious.

The beer is very hazy (the shop was out of irish moss), kind of orange, nothing like the red clear beer you see on the recipe book. I probably should increase the amount of hibiscus flowers, or leave them in the fermentor.

The flavour is very interesting, the rose petals came out really nicely in taste and mixed with the hops to create something very unique. Still a bit yeasty to me (I used a single packet of WLP400, with no starter) I hope it will get better with time, it’s still very young. Lots of positive feedback anyway at the exhibition, from friend and strangers.

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